Tagged: taiwan tea history

John Dodd Gets the Credit for Formosa Oolong; Li Chunsheng Did Half the Work

In 1869 a Scottish trader shipped the first Taiwanese tea to reach New York under its own name, and it sold as "Formosa Oolong," a brand that outlived the man, the shipment, and eventually the export trade itself. The Chinese comprador who built the operation beside him rarely makes the English version of the story.

Two Anxi Migrations Planted Taipei's Rival Tieguanyin and Pouchong, a Decade Apart

Someone had to carry the cuttings and the wrapping method across the strait from Anxi by hand. Two unconnected groups of migrants did exactly that within about a decade of each other, and planted two rival Fujian-style tea traditions a few miles apart in the hills above Taipei: Muzha's rolled Tieguanyin and Wenshan's barely-rolled pouchong.